12 Days Birding & Bird Photography Tours In Sabah, Borneo

Review of Swarovski Modular Spotting Scopes

94 species of birds in 1 day at Tabin Wildlife Reserve

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

I will be off tomorrow with friends to Danum Valley Forest Reserve and will stay at Borneo Rainforest Lodge. Main mission for this trip, Bornean Clouded Leopard and Giant Pitta :)

And so far im impressed with this bino compared with my Nikon Monarch 8x42 which will be send to Nikon service centre for repair on the eyecups soon. It is sharp, bright and more contrast then the Monarch hohoho and the rainforest of Danum Valley will be the real test for this little gem with high humidity and lots of rain !

The new model from Nikon, the Nikon EDG is expected to be out this year. But unfortunately, no news so far except few lucky birders from USA has tested this bino while on trip at Guatemala recently

Thursday, December 18, 2008

One of the highlight during the recent Sandakan Bird Fair last month was the encountered with wild Orang Utan feeding and built 2 nests behind the Borneo Bird Club booth and lucky visitor has a closer look of this endangered species with estimated only around 30 000 left in the wild.

As Cede was saying, "We are conserving the nature and this Orang Utan is one of the 'visitors' that came and support us"

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Visited my favorite patch at Tuaran district this morning looking for the Northern Pintail, instead saw the Northern Shoveler again which i thought have gone to other place or killed by local hunter which i have been informed by one of the local nearby. The hunters came almost everyday late in the afternoon for the Wandering Whistling Duck which is consumed by them.

He was suggesting for putting a warning signboard around the lake so no one can hunt the ducks anymore as this is the only reliable place for seeing some of the migratory birds such Koel, Yellow and Cinnamon Bittern and the Tufted Duck together with the endangered resident Oriental Darter.

Hope i can do something to save those ducks with the bird club and wildlife department as soon as possible :)

And while scanning for the Northern Pintail, suddenly few ducks flew quite close with me and by looking through my scope, i could only see small part of the dark brown head with yellow iris and black pupil on its eyes. Possibility of Tufted Duck ? I will try again tomorrow morning :o

Some of my shots today hehehe :)

Pied Triller hahaha i've been dying to get this shot which is almost impossible with digiscoping !

Great Egret

Sleepy Peaceful Dove

Juvenile Purple Heron

Plaintive Cuckoo mostly heard at other place but quite common to see at the patch